Dec 21 2009
Getting around in the snow
Whilst the whole might of the UK government was being expended in failing to get a deal to stop global warming, the rest of us were struggling to do our jobs and live our lives in sub zero temperatures amidst the snow and ice. Neither the Prime Minister nor Lord Adonis the Transport Minister were around for the ever demanding 7 x 24 media they tell us about to explain the chaos they were ignoring.
On Thursday night I needed to travel back from a meeting and dinner in Birmingham to my own constituency. It was after the time for last trains. I made good progress on a crisp cold night until I reached the Chilterns on the M40. From there the motorway was down to one snow bound and slushy lane, which you could slip and slide along with difficulty. I learned that the M40 was closed shortly afterwards.
I turned off to use the A404 dual carriageway to head to the M4. The northbound A 404 was already at a standstill, with two large lorries slewed across the carriageway blocking all traffic behind. I could just manage to slither my way south as I was going downhill. I became concerned that my side of the road would soon be blocked as well, so I turned off onto smaller local roads, reckoning it would be easier to drive through less churned snow with less ice as a result. To my pleasant surprise I found as soon as I reached Wokingham District roads these had all been well salted and gritted and were clear of snow.
The question to the government is a simple one. Why didn’t they keep the main road arteries open, by sufficient gritting and using snowploughs? If a Council could manage it, why couldn’t the Highways Agency? The weather forecasters were accurate and gave them plenty of warning. Amidst all those billions of dubious and wasteful spending, why couldn’t they find the odd million to hire a fleet of lorries and do the job properly?
They tell us their concern is to be present on the 7 by 24 media. So why didn’t they appear and tell us what they were doing about this pressing problem? Why didn’t the BBC make an issue over the failure to grit and clear the roads?
Why did so many schools close? Do countries that regularly have snow falls in the winter close their schools every day it snows?
The Directors of Eurostar also have some explaining to do. The treatment of their passengers stranded in the tunnel when six different trains broke down, probably all from the same cause, was dreadful. Why didn’t they let some air into the carriages? Why didn’t they allow people to walk back along the emergency exit tunnel if they wished? Why did it take so long to send in a rescue locomotive? Why didn’t they take hot drinks and food to the stranded if they had to be left in the tunnel for so long?
It is curious how green enthusiasts always claim the train is a green solution. Electric trains can be very carbon fuel intensive when you take into account the loss of energy when the gas or coal is burnt to generate the electrictity and then the efficiency losses when the electric power drives the motors. It is even worse when the train system lets so many people down as dramatically as the cross channel service has done this winter. I would love to see a carbon audit of the consequences of this lamentable failure.
46 Responses to “Getting around in the snow”
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Don’t forget the very high energy lossses when the electricity travels down the line from the power station to the point of use.
This probably makes it the least efficient way of powering a vehicle.
Mark Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 10:28 am
Transmission losses are about 7% of power sent out – quite similar to the energy used to pump gas through the UK pipeline network, or the energy consumed by refinery processes for oil. The main losses come during generation.
http://www.fraw.org.uk/ebo/presentation/ebo_2008-section-08.shtml
Stuart Fairney Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
“O” level physics from about a million years ago tells me it is surely dependent on the length over which, the transmission occurs is it not? (i.e. not only net loss but resistance and potential difference and don’t ask me to look up Ohm’s law!!)
Mark Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Transmission losses are greatly mitigated by using very high voltage (the main grid operates at 432,000 Volts). Ohmic loss due to resistance is proportional to the square of the current, and the current is inversely proportional to the voltage. There are also some small losses in voltage transformers (about 2%). Some of the losses in transmission arise from capacitative and inductive effects, rather than just pure resistance.
Stuart Fairney Reply:
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:46 am
Cheers! Do you do somethingthis for a living
Stuart Fairney Reply:
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:48 am
sorry moderator, that was meant to be, do you do something like this for a living or did you get a much better “O” level than me!
Disruptive levels of snow are fairly unusual, at least in the southern half of England. The gritters are useful on the many icy days in the early months we have every year, and these vehicles have the plough blades fitted to their front. However, if this is not enough for these few days, that’s tough luck.
You’re correct in that all Councils should be able to clear roads to the same standard as each other, but when they can’t even maintain the roads to the same standard, there’s not much hope.
Here in Surrey there is always plenty of tax-payers money for the car-haters to put more restrictions on the beleagured motorist, but the roads are literally falling apart. Several “A” grade roads remained uncleared and unsafe earlier this week, although the rat-run I live on was cleared.
I suggest that the emphasis on keeping roads clear at all times is perhaps a red herring – we should be less prepared to travel vast distances in our daily lives. This saves time, fuel, congestion, pollution and inconvenience. If you don’t have to travel to your place of work, the snow can’t stop you! The largest single improvement in my life came when I stopped having to travel around the country on a daily basis, and started working from home.
Perhaps Gordon has spent the 1.5 billion Salt budget on other Countries (who do not get snow) so called needs.
Eurostar have a service tunnel which connects to the two main tunnels for its entire length.
Perhaps service does not include passengers (your customers) needs.
It may have only been one train which broke down, but if you have a train stuck in a tunnel, why would you shove another two or three working ones in after it, after all they are not frogs, they cannot leap over the train in front. But then perhaps the computer controlling such events lacked human logic, and the humans involved preffered to use the well used phrase.
The computer system has failed. Instead of using commonsense.
JR: “Why didn’t the BBC make an issue over the failure to grit and clear the roads?”
The same reason the BBC does not criticize any other aspect of Labour government policy or inaction. The BBC is compromised and will have to go.
Cameron is a fool if he thinks the BBC can be enlisted to support a party implementing right of center policies.
That assumes Cameron intends to implement right of center policies.
JR: “Electric trains can be very carbon fuel intensive when you take into account the loss of energy when the gas or coal is burnt to generate the electrictity and then the efficiency losses when the electric power drives the motors.”
Don’t forget the inefficient transmission of the power across the country too.
Greenoids know nothing about the real world, in the green universe, it is all make believe and wishful thinking.
But they are not even simply deluded, that gives too much benefit of the doubt. They are collectivists, red in tooth and claw.
It seems Eurostar trains suffered from “the wrong kind of snow”, caused by conditions in northern France that they have not experienced in the fifteen years the service has been operating.
These conditions were exceptionally cold air, drying the snow so it was blown through the snow guards as fine powder, rather than sticking outside the guards in wet flakes. As the trains entered the tunnels, the snow melted, shorting the electrics.
I recall a similar tale on British Rail services some time in the mid 90s.
Perhaps the scientists were right 30-40 years ago and we are returning to Earth’s more natural state, namely an ice age, with these last fifteen or twenty years of warmer weather being the exception?
These charts suggest our current warm climate is unusual in the context of the historical changing of Earth’s climate.
http://mossjohnblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/copenhagen-and-all-that.html
I lived in a rural village in the North East and had to get to school -12 miles away – in the 60s on a public service bus which left at 0805 (next one 10am).
Few had cars and so nearly everyone went to work/school outside the village on buses which managed to provide a service, sometimes a bit late, and get through on average 12 inches to 24 inches of snow typical of most Winters.
I cannot remember a school or business being closed, but our third of a pinta had to be thawed next to the radiators. Only once, 17 foot snow drifts, did I miss school because of weather in 13 years.
I can only assume the difference between then and now is caused by global warming.
John C Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
“but our third of a pinta had to be thawed next to the radiators”
Aye mate…
But that was before Milk Snatcher Thatcher had her way and our free milk was taken away from us…
Joking apart though. I agree with you.
I’m from that area (and my headmaster was called Bowman too!). I had to go to school 10 miles away on the local buses and only remember missing one day due to bad weather. We were tough in those days – not like the nannied school kids of today who have individual buses to go to school.
alan jutson Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 2:51 pm
John Bowman / John
Yes remember well the winter of 1963.
Still manged to do my paper round, before I walked the one and a half miles to School, when snow was about 2 feet deep.
Also had smog/fog in West London during this period, when you could only see about 4 feet (1200mm) in front of you on some occassions.
Also remember the milk bottles, ink wells and proper pens.
Like you, did not miss a day at School in 5 years.
Schools closing, in your dreams !!!!!!
Mark Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 8:12 pm
When I were a lad there were no trouble at t’ mill.
John C Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 9:42 pm
You were lucky to have a mill!
There were a hundred and fifty of us school kids in t’ shoebox in t’ middle o’ road.
And you try and tell the young people of today that ….. they won’t believe ya.
Local roads have been the major problem where we are and are the roads that most people need to travel on to get to the gritted routes treated or not. Can I suggest the Conservative party have a policy of encouraging local people to clear their own roads and absolve them of any liability should any one still skid on ice on a road that they have attempted to clear. We know the state can’t do everything for us and individuals and communities have the power and presence to make a big impact in small areas like this. All it will need is a couple of folks with snow shovels and a bag of grit salt to reduce the stress and danger everyone is experiencing yet no one can do a thing for they will be taken though the courts by a bunch of “no win no fee” merchants should anything still happen despite their best efforts.
BillyB Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I was told that RBS have issued an urgent email today to all their branches NOT to clear snow or spread grit due to the threat of litigation if anyone is injured. Mad.
Here in Conservative controlled Kent none of the main A roads were gritted ( and still haven’t been) Both Motorways M2 and M20 were closed so I guess they didn’t get gritted either.
Makes it all the more galling that having had to close my office because no staff could get to work due to council ineptitude with the road system I then receive a Conservative Borough Council business rates upgrade charging me £600 per year per parking space in MY private car park. Needless to say there is no adequate public transport system or sufficient long term town centre car parking.
This labour government is rapidly achieving it’s aims. The schools system is producing school leavers of equal illiteracy. The country’s infrastructure, as witnessed by the inability of keeping the roads clear and usable, is nearing 3rd world proportions, and “Brown the incompetent” is keeping this altogether by giving away all our money. He looks as if he wants to prop up failing regimes, which are bound to waste any aid. Perhaps he is an extraterrestrial fifth columnist, this could explain his peculiarities.
Perhaps Eurostar should use steam trains, they could withstand temperature variance.
John,
I agree; Wokingham Council have done an excellent job of keeping the roads clear and should be praised for it….It strikes me however, that they have done nothing to the pavements and footpaths which is disappointing…..I also notice that residents have not cleared their own paths and the pavements in front of their homes…..Could this be due to the new compensation culture that has infected our nation?
I think it is sad that our nation always grinds to a halt if we have a couple of inches of snow….Schools closing, roads closed, public transport at a standstill and on the roads, the highway code goes out of the window…….Mick Anderson makes some good points above, about the economics of being fully equiped for snow but, I wonder if the costs involved would be off set against the amount of money our nation looses by effectively being closed for a cold snap……I wonder if any of Labour’s many quangos have researched this.
Have a good Christmas John and a very happy 2010…..All I want for Christmas is a change of government….I wonder if Santa Brown will oblige….Somehow, I doubt it;-)
Reply: I agree about the pavements and took it up with thsoe doing the clearing in Wokingham last week. I will pursue.
alan jutson Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Cliff
This afternoon 16.30 hours, Wokingham in common with most other surrounding areas now gridlocked according to local radio, it taking nearly 2 hours to get from one side of town to another.
We live on the A329 and traffic outside has been at a standstill for more than an hour now.
Early snowfall on icy roads, and traffic leaving work early, it would seem has caught out the gritting programme, as gritters can now not get onto the roads due to traffic jams, side roads (leading to the main roads) which were not gritted are now ice rinks.
Am given to understand that the entire Bus service in Reading, has been cancelled due to road conditions.
Always a problem for commuters who have to travel a distance.
In times gone by most people used to work close to home, meaning walking to work was possible.
Reply: yes, tonight is very different from the early snows. It’s complete mess. I had to abandon my plans for this evening as there was no way through.
Just in case I forget.
Happy Christmas, and thank you for your regular dose of sanity. Together with the Daily Mash (I don’t think you two are in competition!) it is what keeps us all sane.
All the best
brian
I could speculate as to why schools close in the snow ~ a combination of uber-careful attitudes to being sued and, let’s be honest, opportunism.
The highways agency is an ongoing joke, especially if you make local councils (local councils !) look efficient.
Eurotunnel is private isn’t it? Therefore nothing to do with the government, if they run a poor enough service they will go bust.
>Do countries that regularly have snow falls in the winter close their schools every day it snows?
No, of course not. Here in S. Germany we have 15 cm of snow. That is very light for this time of year. I have seen 50 cm in a day in other years. The roads were ploughed before breakfast, even the cul-de-sac where I live. Good grief, they even cleared the cycle paths. My son got on his school bus at the normal time and off it went. The council men and their contractors are very pleased to get the overtime in before Christmas. Post and other deliveries are unaffected.
The fact that some airports in northern Germany have closed because it was falling faster than they could clear it is the source of some merriment “down here”, where we know “what real snow looks like”.
Oh yes, the footpath. As a house holder I am obliged to clear my garden path up to the letterbox. Actually I clear all the way to the front door, with a special “snow-pusher”, a miniature plough for human use. And to the rubbish bins. Bin day tomorrow, it could be the Day of Judgement, those binmen would still come.
To stop the snow slipping off the roof and flattening people on the path we had some little railings put on the roof. if you don’t have these you can get round it with a warning sign, “roof avalanches”. (Don’t laugh; A 50 cm thick roof load of snow can kill you.)
We are also responsible for the foot path outside. Our road does not have a pavement, so we have to clear a stripe one metre wide. One year the odd numbers do it on their side, then the even numbers do it on their side. This year it’s their turn.
There is a notice in the council magazine every year; when clearing footpaths please do not push the snow into the road, because then we have to plough again. Please heap it up tidily.
John,
As ever this is the issue of the great, centralised bureaucracy being unable to cope with the demands placed upon it. It’s times like these I’m reminded of the New York anecdote – everyone is responsible for the bit of pavement directly outside their house. Thus when there is a freeze, New Yorkers are prepared and are ready to clear their pavement lest someone slip and fall.
The Eurostar case is interesting. Did they not have a contingency plan for a train getting stuck in the tunnel? If they did, why was it not implemented (presumably leaving people with no fresh air, no food and no drink is not part of it)?
I would have to disagree on the schools issue. Of course countries that regularly have snowfall are prepared for this. We do not have regular winter snowfall, we have occasional winter snowfall. Remember that tyre chains exist and can be purchased in this country. The reason so few people have them is that you so rarely need them they aren’t worth the outlay. Should we really spend taxpayers money on expensive, specialist services that we need for only a few days a year?
Quit whining ! The government isn’t responsible for bad weather, and doesn’t guarantee it can keep roads open 24×7. You saw the Met Office warnings and carried on driving regardless – irresponsible! take responsibility for your own actions and stop expecting the state to bail you out.
You’d soon start moaning if the Highways people bought too many gritting lorries lying idle for years. Its a risk thing.
I agree with Mick Anderson – we should all drive far less and it will improve our QOL. I had a pleasant walk to work this morning through the snow watching all these drivers spinning their wheels and sliding all over the place. Mad.
Reply: The government is responsible for roads, which are a national monopoly, and badly run and inadequately provided at huge cost to taxpayers. Gritting lorries can be hired in when needed and should have been.
Stuart Fairney Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Yes I have to agree with JR, if you charge for the use of roads, you have an obligation to keep them open otherwise it’s a one way bet.
Wait a minute…..
MarkE Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 4:19 pm
“You saw the Met Office warnings”
So did the local authorities and Highways Agency but, despite taking large amounts of tax on the pretext of maintaining the transport infrastructure, they failed to act on those warnings. There is a happy medium between investing in expensive equipment that is used only once every ten years, and doing absolutely nothing at all to keep the country working with the equipment you have. The government decided to do nothing.
That may of course have been a cynical appeal to the lazy – vote Labour next year for more days off work.
BillyB Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 5:43 pm
You want a quango to spend more of my tax just so you can carry on driving in severe weather conditions? Get real. We need to cut spending doncha know?
Reply: it would be a better use of the tax revenue than many they come up with. The roads are not free, we pay dearly for them, so how about some service?
The Highways Agency was designed by the Minstry of Transport for two reasons:
1 To reduce the apparent number of Civil Servants
2 To provide an “out” for ministers when something goes wrong.
I hope that an incoming Coservative government will get rid of all these totally unaccountable agencies and bring their work back into the civil service under proper ministerial control, and where the number of employees can be counted.
At least I’ve now justified my 4×4, bought primarily as it was the only car that I could find that felt comfortable with my back problems. The first time that I’ve ever got my car off our slopingdrive without clearing the snow first!
Were it 10 degrees or so the AGW followers would be screaming “wer’re all doomed” but this cold snap is just a brief abberation of nature!
Just as a matter of interest..I have driven over a million miles during my life, all over the world, and in all types of vehicles and I can assure all of you, that sitting behind the wheel of a Toyota Landcruiser, or equivalent, while being followed by a 40 tonner on snow clogged road is a far,far safer feeling than any of the carbon efficient variety modes of transport.One of those little arguments the pedal pushing eco-loons are never aware of.
I bought a bag of sharp sand last week and have been spreading it on my section of pavement and the road in front of my house this week.
Cliff Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Well done John….Exactly the type of community spirit we in Britain were known for…..I just fear that you may end up with a fixed penalty for littering because Nanny can’t have you thinking for yourself can she?…You may become self reliant;-)
The first year I lived in Rome, in the mid-1980s, it snowed for the first time in seven years. After an hour or so of being gobsmacked, all systems were go again: the buses had chains round their tyres, snowploughs were in operation, all the shops and schools were open. What have we forgotten about dealing with snow that a hot meditterranean country remembers?
Remember when Eurostar services were the only links that WERE working because of the snow? Think how many airports stop services and there isn’t such a panic… and they actually leave the ground! I know for a fact that Eurostar have already started making changes and that services are due to resume as soon as today or tomorrow.
It just goes to show that when it comes to the crunch, you need to make sure that you are prepared.
My 4×4 has a whole range of useful little tools in it, from a rope to spare clothes in it – and I know that it will get my family and me to anywhere in the country, regardless of the weather.
However, the cost to this is a constant range of snide remarks from pseudo intellectuals with no practical skills!
Oh, how I look forward to May – however, I somehow doubt it will make any difference!
Mr Brown has a lot of courage to be Prime Minister when he is nearly blind. Harriet Harman is to be congratulated on her humility in stepping down from her pedestal to be the women’s champion. There are some (less pleasant-ed) gay people. There are some (less pleasant-ed) black people. One of the nicest families I know lives, with servants, in a castle with a title.
Shocked?
All these do not fit into the frame, do they.
Another thing that doesn’t fit into the frame is Russian weather when we should be having global warming or whatever it is called at the moment. Al Gore shivering? No way. So let’s deny it.
And the express service between Britain and the continent is one of the most efficient in the world.
So when there is a minor trouble it is easy to deny it and ignore it.
MINOR TROUBLE??!?
“I would love to see a carbon audit of the consequences of this lamentable failure.” (JR)
Hmmm, something keeps telling me I need to retrain as a ‘carbon’ accountant. Do you need any qualifications for this I wonder?
It’s at times like this it’s nice to live in one of the lesser populated areas of the United Kingdom, up in the North of Scotland. Sounds strange as you’d think that the remoter the area the worse one would be affected by adverse weather but we manage to muddle through. May have a road blocked here or there but simply take another and take your time.
The impression I get of England at the moment is that everything is ran at the very limits with no wiggle room so as soon as one thing falls over there is a domino type affect that knocks everything else askew.
The Eurostar incident is a scandal, though. Do these people not know what a HAZID is and do they not simulate situations like this on a regular basis? I’m sure that Eurostar spends enough on safety consultants, although one must ask what on earth for if they can’t handle a minor situation like this.
One dreads to think what would have happened if the situation had been escalated due to an accident caused by the disruption.
You are right about the train not being a particularly green form of transport. The last time that Transport Statistics of Great Britain published comparative road and rail CO2 emission statistics, in the early 90s, rail emissions were coming in at 60% of car emissions. That was in the days of the old slam door trains. The modern trains are heavier, have air conditioning and wider seats. All these factors make for passenger comfort but they come at a price – higher emissions. It was instructive that when South West Trains ordered 180 Desiro trains, they could only put 45 into service at the start. The power supply along the Basinstoke line had to be beefed up.
What are the most environmentally friendly vehicles for any transport mode? Simple – full ones are because thereby you maximize the live weight to dead weight ratio, leading to low emissions per passenger-km. Rail (and bus) services suffer from the fact that off-peak frequencies are high, for social reasons, leading to lightly occupied trains. With car, it goes the other way; average occupancy off-peak is higher than for journeys to work.
The most recent published data that I have seen on average CO2 emissions for car, diesel rail, electric rail and bus is given in an article by Jim Russell, a retired transport planner and operator, in the December 2007 edition of Logistics & Transport focus, the CILT’s monthly magazine. Hybrid car and hybrid bus have the lowest CO2 emissions per passenger-km. Conventional car, diesel rail and bus are much of a muchness, and electrical rail emissions – both underground and surface rail -are about DOUBLE.
L McD – all these arguments are an angels-on-a-pinhead debate – if you really want to reduce CO2 emissions we all have to travel a lot less on things with engines. That means structural changes like living closer to work, reducing or eliminating commuting etc.
The usual winter fiasco makes you wonder what would happen if a real problem occurred like a blip in the food supply chain or a biblical drought.
Do the Directors of Eurostar use the trains? Will there be any financial penalties or job losses for them? You just know the answer. At the same time public servants will be pretending they work for the private sector while getting back into bed after seeing a snowflake like teachers hiding behind health and safety. 8 till 2 with an hour for lunch weather permitting, 30 weeks of the year would be ideal.
Well, it is important to remember re:Eurostar that the services have only been reduced, which seems to be common sense for people’s safety to be honest. I’ve just got back (today) from Strasbourg so I wasn’t stuck in the tunnel, but I think people should check the Ebbsfleet, and indeed the station websites as they do give out all the info.